1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal that controls an external apparatus such as an image forming apparatus or a projector by intuitive operation, an output control system, and a data outputting method for the mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
The popularization of mobile terminals such as smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) enable highly functional operations such as creation of documents, browsing of word wide web (Web) pages, and editing of images to be also performed through using the mobile terminals. As a result, functions to output data thus created or browsed to external apparatuses such as image forming apparatuses and projectors are also built in the mobile terminals. An example of such mobile terminals has a communication function using a communication system such as a wireless local area network (wireless LAN) or Bluetooth (registered trademark), and the mobile terminals are connected to a network using the communication function.
As for an operation method, in the mobile terminal such as a smartphone, for giving an instruction of output to an external apparatus, a printing processing system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-163794 is known, for example. In the printing processing system, a technique is disclosed in which a thumbnail image is produced by an image forming apparatus and the image forming apparatus sends the image to a mobile terminal; and a print instruction is output after a user confirms the image to be printed. In the operation of the print instruction, an operation screen is displayed on a display serving as a user interface of the mobile terminal and the instruction is transmitted by an input that is input through the operation screen.
As another operation method in the mobile terminal such as the smartphone, a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-149616 in which information in a mobile terminal can be searched or browsed by detecting motions such as “tilting” or “shaking” the mobile terminal as a more intuitive method besides the operation of the operation screen on the display.
In the above-described operation method of output instruction, however, the operations need to be performed, while visually confirming menus or icons displayed on the operation screen. The operation based on motions such as “tilting” or “shaking” too, is limited to being used for browsing or searching of information in the mobile terminal.
There is a need to provide a mobile terminal that enables an instruction of outputting data to be intuitively given.